Let’s face it, maintaining a proper cholesterol level for optimal health is a somewhat confusing undertaking. However, the stakes are enormous for you and your health. Hopefully, this explanation will answer the question of what is a good ration for LDL to HDL.

What is cholesterol ratio and what is it used for?

Doctors use a ratio of your good cholesterol compared to your over all cholesterol number to determine what your coronary risk ratio is. As you know, it’s important to maintain a healthy level of HDL in order to reduce the bad cholesterol or LDL in your blood stream.

The medical community has determined exactly; what is a good ratio for LDL to HDL to maintain good heart health? The answer involves dividing the bad cholesterol number by the good LDL number. A ratio of two to three is ideal.

So what does all this mean?

This is all pretty much inside baseball for the doctor to decipher. Here are the important points for you to concentrate on to maintain good heart health and avoid all the potential disease that comes with high cholesterol.

Your total cholesterol should be maintained below 199 mg/dl. More importantly, you should strive to keep your bad cholesterol below 99mg/dl and work at keeping HDL above 39mg/dl. This can all be shown to you with a simple blood lipid panel. Your doctor can set this up, sometimes right in his office if he has a lab on the premises.

O.K., so how do I do this?

The best way to lower total cholesterol naturally while boosting your HDL is to increase your intake of foods with proven Omega 3 benefits! This means simply cutting back on the foods filled with saturated fat. Too much intake of animal fat is going to elevate LDL fast!

» Read more: Maintain a Proper Cholesterol Ratio: What You Need to Stay Healthy

By the time you finish reading this, you will feel totally motivated to take care of your heart health by working on ways to lower bad cholesterol. In fact, if you have one ounce of competitive spirit, you should look at this as a race to lower bad cholesterol in order to insure a healthy life.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the leading cause of death is cardio vascular or heart disease. With statistics in the United States showing a surge in obesity, and poor nutrition, it’s no wonder that there are sixty plus million people at risk with high cholesterol.

Bad cholesterol, referred to as LDL or low density lipoprotein is now considered the leading cause of heart disease. Here is why; excess LDL causes severe blockage of the cardio vascular system. LDL is created by foods that are high in saturated fat. This fat buildup forms a plaque that constricts blood flow to the heart.

Un abated, this blockage will eventually cause stroke or heart attack. Depending on your overall health, you may not survive a first heart attack. Because of these statistics, everyone should consider this a race to better health!

What can I do to affect my cholesterol?

If you are looking for natural ways to lower bad cholesterol fast, start by looking at the package of every processed food product you buy. Total cholesterol and saturated fat are the two main items you must look for.

My wife and I were in the store looking for dinner ideas recently, and I suggested that we hadn’t had battered fish fillets in some time. I’ve been eating them for years and happened to look at the back of the box to find the twenty- eight percent saturated fat figures staring me in the face.

» Read more: Heart Disease Prevention: How to Lower Bad Cholesterol Levels Quickly